Iphone interface question

Question

Just curious if I need to implement a way for the user to get back to the main screen of a program. It's actually essential in my app for the user not to be able to get back. Will this get rejected if I don't add a back button?

Answer 1

As best I can tell not having a back button will not be grounds for application rejection.

Answer 2

Then it's not really a "main screen"; it's more like an "intro" screen. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Answer 3

It sounds like you want to present an intro screen for your application, either once or on each application load I can't be sure. Could you possibly present this view modally, using -presentModalViewController:animated:?

Answer 4

If your using a navigation view i.e. a table with a list of pranks, each of which opens a view with the full prank, then you need merely not provide a button or other interface which will call the navigation controllers pop methods.

Of course, this will mean that the only means of backing out of the prank view will be to quit the app.

Just a warning. Apple will reject any app that makes it appear that the phone itself has failed. The most famous example being the app that created an illusion that the screen was cracked.

A lot of prank apps have been rejected because they generate the illusion that the phone has a problem functioning. Your prank calculator might be skirting the edge of that. If Apple is concerned that that users will believe the iPhone is at fault instead of the particular app, they will almost certainly reject it.

Answer 5

You don't have to have a clearly visible "Back" button, and that will add to the illusion. There should be some hidden type of way to get back, though, like it says in the Human Interface Guidelines, which state that the user must be able to clearly navigate within the "drill down" style application menus quickly and easily.

As for the app store, it could go either way. If you have a hidden way to get back, like a shake gesture, then you'd probably have better luck. The broken calculator might have its own problems, though, since Apple doesn't like anything that doesn't function as it should.